The Challenge

A busy Melbourne beauty salon was losing customers and revenue due to:

•Missed calls: 40% of calls went unanswered during busy hours
•After-hours inquiries: No way to book appointments outside business hours
•Staff burnout: Receptionists overwhelmed with routine booking calls
•High labor costs: $65,000/year for reception staff
•Booking errors: Double bookings and scheduling mistakes

The owner wanted a solution that felt personal and professional while reducing costs and improving availability.

Project Objectives

24/7 Availability

Handle calls and bookings round-the-clock

Natural Conversations

Voice cloned to match salon owner's Australian accent

Seamless Booking

Direct integration with Fresha and Calendly

Cost Efficiency

Minimize per-minute costs while maintaining quality

The Solution

A comprehensive AI voice receptionist built on Vapi with advanced features and intelligent integrations.

Voice Cloning

Custom voice model trained on salon owner's voice with authentic Australian accent. Clients feel like they're speaking with the owner personally.

✓Perfect Australian accent replication

✓Natural conversation flow

✓Warm, professional tone

Smart Booking System

Integrated with Fresha and Calendly to check real-time availability, book appointments, and handle rescheduling—all through natural conversation.

✓Real-time slot availability

✓Service-specific scheduling

✓Automated confirmations

Automated Communications

Sends instant email confirmations, reminders, and directions. Keeps clients informed without manual intervention.

✓Booking confirmations

✓Appointment reminders

✓Location & directions

Intelligent Handoff

Recognizes complex queries or special requests and seamlessly transfers to human staff with full conversation context.

✓Context-aware transfers

✓Smooth customer experience

✓No repeated information

Service Guidance

Answers questions about services, pricing, duration, and provides recommendations based on client needs and preferences.

✓Service descriptions

✓Pricing information

✓Personalized recommendations

Analytics Dashboard

Custom-built monitoring interface to track all conversations, bookings, and performance metrics in real-time.

✓Call recordings & transcripts

✓Booking statistics

✓Performance analytics

Technical Excellence

Cost-Optimized AI

Strategic use of lightweight AI models to minimize per-minute costs while maintaining exceptional quality:

→$0.15/minute average cost vs. $0.45/min industry standard
→Under 800ms latency for natural conversation flow
→Groq inference engine for lightning-fast responses
→Optimized models selected for voice-specific tasks

Security & Monitoring

Enterprise-grade security measures and comprehensive monitoring systems:

→End-to-end encryption for all voice and data transmissions
→Fraud detection systems to prevent booking abuse
→Real-time monitoring with instant alerts for issues
→GDPR compliant data handling and storage

Technology Stack

✓Vapi Voice AI

✓Groq Inference

✓ElevenLabs Voice

✓GPT-4 Turbo

✓Fresha API

✓Calendly API

✓SendGrid Email

✓Next.js Dashboard

✓PostgreSQL

✓Redis Cache

✓Twilio Phone

✓AWS Infrastructure

The Results

Missed Calls

Down from 40% of incoming calls

24/7

Availability

Bookings accepted any time, any day

78%

Cost Reduction

$14,000/year vs. $65,000 receptionist

45%

More Bookings

Increased appointments from after-hours calls

Additional Impact

✓Improved Customer Satisfaction

Net Promoter Score increased from 62 to 84 due to instant response times

✓Zero Booking Errors

Automated system eliminated all double bookings and scheduling mistakes

✓Staff Efficiency

Team can focus on in-person client experience instead of answering phones

✓Scalable Growth

Can handle 10x call volume without additional infrastructure costs

Beauty Salon AI Voice Receptionist